“VA may eventually treat 1.5 million Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran patients.

Among these veterans, some sources revealed last year that the PTSD rate exceeds 30 percent, and one Stanford University study puts the PTSD rate at 35 percent. If accurate, that means a total of between 780,000 and 910,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans may return home with PTSD, which is often debilitating.”

The US media almost never reports these numbers, giving the much smaller, though even sadder, numbers of US military personnel killed ( nearly 7,000 in the two wars).

The Iraq War was an elective war. It was fought for objectives that are still murky. It was illegal in international law. George W. Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney took these brave men and women into battle despite the lack of serious threat to the US from Iraq. The full harm they did these military personnel won’t be known for decades. But all too often observers concentrate on the soldiers killed in action or (less commonly) wounded physically or suffering from physical conditions attributable to serving in the war. The enormous psychological toll of these wars on soldiers, sailors and Marines is seldom recalled.

Further

Almost everyone hates Indiana's egregious "religious freedom" law - cue fierce backlash from businesses, churches, states, cities, legal experts and unhateful Hoosiers - but the most creative response came from an enterprising libertarian who delightedly used his new religious freedom to found the First Church of Cannabis - "One Toke, One Smile, One Love" - aimed at "celebrating all that is good in our hearts." His goal: "A House of Hemp Built with Love," and presumably lots of munchies.